Jarrett Stidham is in what could very well be a make-or-break offseason in New England.
The quarterback landed with the Patriots as a fourth-round pick out of Auburn in 2019, earning the backup job behind Tom Brady.
Last spring, for a short time, he was even theorized as the heir to the GOAT when Brady joined the Bucs via free agency.
Since then, the team signed veteran Cam Newton, who started 15 at times ugly games in his first season in New England last fall, and this spring drafted Alabama’s Mac Jones with the 15th overall pick of the first round.
That’s left Stidham as a somewhat forgotten man in the QB competition in Foxborough. He admits that Jones’ draft selection resonated with him as he works toward his third NFL season.
“Absolutely, it definitely fires me up,” Stidham said of Jones’ arrival and added competition. “Last year bringing in Cam before training camp, that fired me up to continue to get better and to continue to grow as a player. Definitely fired up to be competing against Mac, [Brian Hoyer] and Cam. It’s a great room. It’s a lot of fun to be in there. But definitely fired up to compete against those guys every day.”
Despite having been on the roster continuously longer than any other current Patriots quarterback, Stidham has never really gotten his chance to start or showcase his abilities, something New England owner Robert Kraft actually pointed out this spring. And with Newton the returning starter and Jones the high-profile first-round rookie, that may not change any time soon.
While fans and media alike seem fixated on the Cam vs.
Mac battle, Stidham remains focused on himself.
“My approach doesn’t change at all,” Stidham said after the first workout of New England’s mandatory three-day minicamp at Gillette Stadium. “Every day when I come in the building my approach is to learn from the people around me, obviously the coaches, the players that have been playing a long time in this league. Learn as much as possible and continue to grow. So, drafting Mac, that hasn’t really changed my approach. I can control what I can control and that’s how hard I work, how prepared I am and those things haven’t changed. My mindset has really been the same.”
Though the outside world may have given up on the idea that Stidham could be the starter in New England, he made it clear that he has not given up on himself.
“I can control what I can control. Whatever role that is.
My goal is to be the quarterback here and to start football games for a really long time in this league,” Stidham declared. “The mindset of that has never changed and never will change. But I’m going to continue to work as hard as I possibly can to really improve and continue to do what I need to do in order to get better and to help this team.”
Asked about never actually getting an opportunity to start or prepare as a starter over his first two seasons -- including late last season when Newton continued to struggle for a Patriots team already eliminated from postseason contention – Stidham reiterated the phrase he uttered a number of times throughout his Monday Zoom session with reporters.
“I just control what I can control,” Stidham concluded.